


How we were then, and now

by TheCarrot



Series: Ahoy-hoy... [4]
Category: Leverage, The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Both sets of OT3's, Ezekiel and Parker chat at a museum, Humour, I Don't Even Know, Multi, Sort Of, The Librarians Shipathon 2018, a little bit of soul baring, a very distinctive crossover, they also stopped a magic ghost way back, they are both good people even if they don't believe it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-23 17:30:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15611364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCarrot/pseuds/TheCarrot
Summary: There’s hardly a gem or artefact in the world that Ezekiel doesn’t know the value of.Gold, diamonds, antiques and paintings.He can put numbers to it all.What he can't add up is how much Parkers changed in the past five years.





	How we were then, and now

**Author's Note:**

> I am stuck on the prompt I got, so I wrote this instead? Hopefully this will get the muses going and let me finish what I'm supposed to be working on!

There’s hardly a gem or artefact in the world that Ezekiel doesn’t know the value of. 

Gold, diamonds, antiques and paintings.

He can put numbers to it all.

It’s why he enjoys tagging along when Jake and Cassandra go on museum tours. They look at the art and the angles and fall in love with the paintings and the math all over again. The two of them go to lose themselves in the history and the old knowledge. 

Ezekiel though, he’s all too happy to walk through and add up all the numbers. Two hundred thousand euros. Five million euros. Ohhh that one would fetch about twenty million dollars back state side. Zilch, totally a fake… three hundred thousand euros. Ezekiel pauses as he stalks by a large glass cabinet holding a familiar looking gold spear head. He cracks a small smile as he lets his two partners move ahead of him, staring at the empty spot where a large ruby should be inlaid, but is now just an empty hole. 

Speaking of rubies…isn’t this just fitting.

“It just doesn’t have the same flair anymore.”

Ezekiel doesn’t jump at the soft petulant voice behind him, merely turns to the blonde woman and gives her a sharp grin in reply. “You mean the flair of a crazy two thousand year old ghost?” He chuckles. 

Parker huffs and comes to stand next to the other thief, her hands shoved into the pockets of her dark jeans. The fake glasses on her nose slip as she rolls her eyes. “Besides that duh- but the ruby really added to it you know.”

“I know, but somethings are just not worth the hassle.”

She rolls her eyes mutters something that sounds suspiciously like ‘rubies are always worth it silly’ and for a moment the two thieves stand in a companionable silence in front of the case. Without the ruby it’s not really worth stealing anymore. The quiet is only broken when Ezekiel glances at the woman next to him. “So what are you doin’ here?” His curiosity is getting the better of him.

Parker shrugs and scratches at the tight up-do Eliot did for her hair that morning. “Stealing stuff...theres a piece here that belongs to Abdul Hamir,”

Outwardly his face barely twitches but Ezekiel’s back straightens and he can feel his muscles tighten, ready to flee at just hearing the name. “And this is a bang up idea becaussseeee...”

Pale blue eyes rove around the room watching every person and guard but Parker does it so casually it draws no ones attention. “...he’s hurting people...”

The Aussie reaches out and slips a pamphlet out of the pocket of another museum goer, just to give his hands something to do, but mostly so he doesn’t give himself away by ogling at the blonde like she’s grown a second head. 

As much as he wants too.

Parker though, she shuffles towards him, barely imperceptible, and drops her voice so only Ezekiel can hear her. “You know how you used to do that thing? Where you’d steal stuff then help people?”

“Oh that thing.” Ezekiel mutters, slumping his shoulders so Parker can lean in closer to him. Of course Parker would actually remember that…he had been so sure she would have forgotten it.

“Well, we’re kinda doing that thing now...”

Ezekiel can’t help the way his eyes flick to the other thief’s face in confusion, “Say what now?”

The look on Parker’s face is slightly uncomfortable but she still looks back at the Aussie with a determined smile. “We’re helping people now, my team and I.” She says and Ezekiel is sort of floored by the honest gleam in her eyes. It’s a little manic still, but she’s not lying... 

He doesn’t outright ask for more information but Ezekiel can’t help the raised eyebrow he sends her way. 

She doesn’t continue however, merely threads an arm through his and keeps eyeing the room even if she doesn’t visibly look away from the damaged spear. 

“Abdul Hamir,” Ezekiel finally mutters on an exhale. “I hope you lot got a plan...”

“We’re working on it.”

They stand for a moment before Parker looks over at her old acquaintance. “What about you? You casing the place?”

Ezekiel lifts the corner of his mouth in a mix between a smirk and a smile. “Wellll...not so much, no.”

He tugs gently on Parker’s arm and Ezekiel starts to lead her away, walking casually down the main hall that’s full of tourists. She’s lifting wallets as fast as he is and together they’re putting them back in the wrong peoples jackets or bag.

“You go even more legit?” Parker sounds annoyed but not completely nonplussed as she slips by a couple and dropping another mans wallet into her bag. They’re still linked arm in arm and Ezekiel is using his left hand but he doesn’t mind the disadvantage.

“In a manner of speaking,” Near the end of the hallway, Ezekiel can see Jake and Cassandra starting to look around for him. It’s only when he sees them, that he notices two others further down from them. A tall man with dark skin and muscles and another who he swears is the clone of Jacob Stone with longer hair.

Parker sends them a large smile and a wave before turning Ezekiel into a different room with a large grin. 

“Alec Hardison and Eliot fucking Spencer...” Ezekiel spins around and bodily shoves Parker onto a bench so he can sit and fold over himself, covering his face with his elbows on his knees. “Thats your team??”

Parker shrugs at him and pokes his side with a mad giggle. “It happens.” She huffs when he doesn’t respond to her poking and she ends up pulling him up off the bench and into another room just as Hardison and Eliot dart into the section they were just in. “Just like the way it happens when you go to steal a dagger in Geneva and get abducted by a cookoo Librarian.”

Ezekiel rolls his eyes because of course Parker wouldn’t let him live that down either. “Flynn didn’t abduct any of us,” he in turn holds onto Parker’s arm a bit tighter as they twirl away from Stones line of sight. “He in fact tried very hard to be rid of us.”

They end up in a stair case that’s been sectioned off, velvet rope completely ignored as they stand up high enough on the steps to not be seen by the crowds.

Dark brown eyes glance up at Parker who is gleefully sizing up the small paintings on the wall and he has to cock his head to the side when she doesn’t immediately go to take them off the wall. They’re worth about ten million apiece...

“You’re different.”

She really is.

The blonde freezes, and Ezekiel almost feels bad for mentioning it, but then Parker, of all people is shooting him a look that’s filled with…happiness. “Parker?”

She slips down to sit on one of the stairs and lets her body curl up as small as she can get it without falling off. Parker glances up at him and Ezekiel sees so much of Cassandra in her face at that moment that he has to crouch down in front of her, reaching out to brush a lock of blonde hair behind her ear.

There’s a vulnerability there that he has never seen before; in all their encounters Ezekiel has never seen Parker look less like, well…like Parker. Instead, she reminds him of an oh-so-vulnerable human. However that vulnerability is not a weakness, just like Cassandra’s isn’t; Ezekiel can see that if anything it’s just a layer of the person she’s becoming. It’s a layer made up of nerves and not being completely sure if what they’re doing is right and not knowing if it’s going to work out in the end- just hoping that it would. And Ezekiel really wants to know what she’s been doing to change so much, he hesitates though, instead asking; “Parker, luv, what are you goin’ after Hamir for?”

Parker leans into his touch for a moment before leaning forward to drop her head against her friends. Because they were friends damnit, after those few heists they ended up running into each other on, after vanquishing an evil ghost, after being stuck in the air vent together all that time, plus not to mention having to split to reward on an emerald neither of them are willing to admit they couldn’t steal by themselves… Parker finally realizes she may have had a friend in Ezekiel all along. It just took Hardison to show her how to reconcile that with the part of her that didn’t want strings; but if anyone would understand her now, would be her friend now, it would be Ezekiel Jones. So when he doesn’t pull immediately away she smiles and whispers,

“We’re Leverage.”

Ezekiel jerks back, eyes wide as he stares at Parker in shock and his grip slackens dangerously. He somehow manages to keep hold of Parker’s arms to keep himself from going too far back and falling down the stairs because...of all things... that was the last thing he had ever expected.

“No, listen to me, please.” Parker is clutching at his shirt sleeves now but there’s a small smile playing at her lips almost as if she’s amused by the disbelief Ezekiel is feeling. “Look, you were right. All those years ago when you told me what you were going to do with the Sword Of Emmanuel. I thought you were joking… but I didn’t realize back then, I do now.”

Ezekiel can’t help but gape at the hands holding onto him as Parker clutches at him; holding him there like him listening and understanding is important to her now.

“If theres one thing I’ve learned, it’s that lesson you told me about all those years ago.” Parker smiles at him and the Aussie can’t help the worried grin he gives her back. “You told me that if there’s peoples around you that need your help and you have the ability too, that you should do all you can. You said, that when you have a lot, you share.” Parker’s blues eyes are gleaming in the dim light of the stair well. “I know back then I wasn’t ready to listen to you, but Nate’s taught us all so much, and....and you were right, we may lie, cheat and steal, but the bad guys can be good guys too…. And, I like being a good guy for a change.” 

Silence falls between them for a moment as Ezekiel runs through the cases he knows the Leverage crew has worked on and, frankly he’s shocked. Shocked that Parker remembers that conversation from all those years ago, shocked that in the five years since he’d seen her last that she could change so much. He’s shocked that she seems so happy with who she’s become.

The smile breaking out on Ezekiel’s face brings one to Parker’s as well and the two fall together, heads bent against one another as they both start to laugh and bask in the elation that comes from such a statement that maybe, just maybe, they can be considered good people now.

Ezekiel pulls back first and reaches up to cusp Parker’s face in his hands. Years ago he’d never have gotten this close. “I am so proud of you...” he whispers.

Parker lets out a choked off laugh and the feeling of his words is the same feeling she gets when Hardison or Eliot hugs her. Warm; and comfortable.

They sit for a moment, basking in the now shared feeling of actually being good when all they’ve been has ever been bad. 

“Hamir?”

Parker’s grin this time is a bit more feral looking, a bit more like the girl he used to know. “He’s been using young kids to smuggle artefacts and money across war zones. We’re going to stop him.”

Ezekiel likes the sound of that. A lot. “Don’t suppose you need a hand with any of it?”

The blonde shakes her head in the negative. “Hardison’s got a program running while we’re here to see what he can get from Hamir’s transactions and their sources. I’m thinking I may swing by later and just nab the files directly. And maybe some of the stuff he’s donated too,”

The Aussie nods and lets go of Parker just as two very angry, very worried voices can be heard calling. 

“Parker!” That’s Eliot hissing.

“Babe?” Hardison trying not to be too frantic.

Parker laughs at her boys and watches as Ezekiel gets to his feet. 

“That’s my cue, see you around Parker.” Ezekiel chuckles as she gets to her feet as well.

“Hey, I’m in Portland now, you should stop by sometime.”

Ezekiel defiantly does not stumble at that. “Portland? Oregon?” He can feel a twitch in his cheek. “That’s where I’m at...”

“Your magic library is in Portland?” Parker asks incredulously. 

“The annex is.” Ezekiel laughs but he can tell that that doesn’t mean anything to Parker. “I’ll drop by sometime then.” 

“Parker?!” 

Eliot’s voice draws her gaze and she can feel the small brush of air that signals Ezekiel’s departure just as her Hitter gets to the bottom step. 

Parker holds out her hands to stop Eliot from coming up and she slides down the railing instead, coming to a stop when he reaches out to grab her. “We should install more railings at the brewpub!”

Hardison is there immediately and both Eliot and Parker ignore his barrage of questions as they look back up the empty stair case.

“Was that Jones?” Eliot questions setting Parker on her feet next to Alec. 

Parker nods happily as Hardison sputters and looks around wildly. “He was here?! Ezekiel jones??!”

There’s a echo of laughter from down the hall and it takes both of them to hold Hardison back from going after the other hacker. 

“By the way we should probably go...” Parker adds suddenly.

Hardison sends her a flat-knowing look over his shoulder and Eliot looks like he’s in pain just at the thought of whatever the two thieves got up too.

“Hey! Where’s my wallet?!”

Eliot groans and lets go of their boyfriend to start shoving the both of them towards the exit. “Damnit Parker.”

“Hey it wasn’t just me!”

—

In another room Cassandra and Jake look up when a woman starts shouting about her wallet. It’s only a moment after that that another man starts shouting about his phone.

“We brought this on ourselves didn’t we?” Cassandra sighs crossing her arms, gaze not moving from the beautiful statue they had been admiring.

Jake just groans and rubs at his face in exasperation. “Hey, you were the one who said he could come with us.”

The red head whirls on her partner but the sudden presence at her side has her jumping and turning to see an amused Ezekiel now beside her. “We really need to get you a bell.” She sighs. 

Ezekiel shrugs and gives Stone a quick pat on the back. “Relax, we didn’t take anything. Just mixed some sorts around that’s all.”

That doesn’t make Jake feel any better if the noise he makes is any indication.

“Ok, well, I’m headin’ back to the Annex,” The thief mutters as guards start to gather up the ones making a fuss about their items. 

“Alright let’s go.” Cassandra sighs grabbing hold of Jakes hand and Ezekiel’s arm, holding their Aussie a bit closer than normal, as if to avoid letting him within reach of more unsuspecting people.

Ezekiel feels a small bubble of happiness crawl up his throat and willingly follows them as they lead him out of the museum. “We should go out together more often.” 

“Just walk Jones,” Jacob sighs and he lets go of Cassie’s hand so he can bracket Ezekiel between them. Safer for the public that way, he thinks as he feels a light touch at his side, Ezekiel putting his hand in his pocket and letting his touch ghost over Jakes fingers. Jake catches them and holds on tight. 

“Wait… why did you say ‘We’?” 

Ezekiel just laughs at his other two companions and takes over leading them towards the exit just as a familiar evil cackle echoes in the distance of the hallway.


End file.
